This image made from a video shows soldiers helping children found in a Baghdad orphanage. Many of the boys were found naked and in a dark room. Some were tied to their beds, too weak to stand. An Iraqi official said news reports about the case are inaccurate. All the boys, he said, are severely handicapped and were abandoned by their families.

Baghdad, Iraq – An Iraqi official has criticized the U.S. for publicizing soldiers’ discovery of 24 severely malnourished boys in a Baghdad orphanage.

Some of the children were tied to their beds and too weak to stand, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

Labor and Social Affairs Minister Mahmoud Mohammed al-Radhi said news reports about the case were inaccurate.

“We totally reject the tricks they used to manipulate and distort facts and show the Americans as the humanitarian party. That could not be further from the truth,” he said.

The minister said the institution in which the boys were housed had saved them from a certain death on the streets of Baghdad. All the boys, he said, were severely handicapped and abandoned by their families.

The U.S. military said the boys were between the ages of 3 and 15. It said many of the youngsters were found naked in a dark room with no windows. Supplies of food and clothing were found in a nearby storeroom.

Three women, who claimed to be caretakers, and two men, the orphanage director and a guard, were in the building when the soldiers arrived June 10, according to the military statement.

The story was first reported this week by CBS News, which showed pictures of the children in the orphanage.

Al-Radhi issued his comments to the independent Sharqiya television station, which is often critical of the government. It showed still pictures of the emaciated children lying on the floor, some of them tied to cribs. The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat also published a picture of the children in its Wednesday editions.

The military said U.S. medics were called in to treat the children and that Iraqi soldiers notified local council members, who came to help the boys. Ten additional workers have been hired to work with the children, who were transferred to another facility.

“We’re very grateful that this story unfolded the way that it did, that none of these 24 boys lost their lives,” said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, Multi-National Division-Baghdad deputy commanding general. “This is a story of partnership, courageous action and compassion overcoming deplorable negligence,” Brooks said.

The U.N. Children’s Fund said last month that Iraq’s children are caught in a rapidly worsening tragedy and that half the estimated 4 million Iraqis who have fled their homes since the war began in 2003 are children.